Thursday, November 13, 2008

Here is what I propose:

Everyday - 2 times a day. I have to drive to the middle school to drop off or pick up kids. Traffic over there is a complete mess, which is to be expected with that many cars in a small space all at the same time. What surprises me is how upset the other drivers get. It is not unusual to hear honking or see aggressive driving. I don't understand what there is to get so upset about. We are all on the same team, so to speak. We are all trying to get the same thing done - drop off or pick up. Our kids all go to the same school!

I personally have been honked at several times for not pulling out of the driveway fast enough. What the honkers don't see is that it is not safe to pull out; either because a car is coming or pedestrians are crossing. A few days ago, this was happening, I was honked at twice and I could see the driver behind me becoming really agitated and then tried to pull around me. I felt so annoyed by this, I wanted to get out of the car and say something, but I've seen enough court shows to know that's never a good idea.

What I thought of was some sort of digital sign that could be put in the back window. When someone honks, the sign could flash messages such as, "There are children crossing" or "It is not safe to exit now" or "I can't go, the intersection is blocked"

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Lies my science teacher told me

My 8th grade science teacher left such an impression on me. Not because he was such a great teacher, but because of all the lies he told, which took me several years to figure out were untrue. I remember he had a lot of wacky stories about all sorts of things that he said either happened to him, or someone he knew.

The most memorable was when we did a unit on parasites and he told us about tapeworms. According to him, he had some friends who had tapeworms because they took diet pills that were actually tapeworm eggs. One man would go to a restaurant, and order bad food (rotten eggs and other spoiled things). After eating that, he would order a steak or something else good. When questioned he said, "I didn't want to feed my tapeworm anything good." He also told us how these people got rid of their worms. According to my teacher you can take some medicine to kill the tapeworm, but it gives you a terrible stomach ache for a few days. So instead, one of his friends just didn't eat for a few days. Then he held a steak in front of his open mouth and waited for the tapeworm to crawl out. Another one made a cut in his leg and the worm crawled out there. (Not sure how).

The unit we did on reproduction was full of lies. I don't remember discussing how babies are made, but I remember the teacher telling us that it was possible for a woman to get pregnant again, when she is already pregnant. He said that when twins are born, one is usually smaller than the other. That is because one has been in the womb for 9 months and the other one only 8 months. He told a story about a lady he knew who went to the doctor to have a baby. After the baby was born the doctor said to the lady, "See you in 4 months." The lady asked, "What for?"
"To have the other one." was the doctors reply.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

In My Dreams

Last week I had a disturbing dream that my teeth fell out. I have heard that this is a common dream but I personally had never experienced it before. I googled this dream to see if I could figure out where it came from. I found an article that had several explanations.

"Dreams of tooth loss coupled with anxiety reflect a fear of change, fear of transition. Ask yourself if there is some transition that you are fearful of making. In waking life, when people lose teeth, they often cover their mouths when talking or smiling. Is there something going on in your waking life that you feel you must hide or 'cover up'?"

Yes and yes.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Who Could It Be?


We have been watching some old TV shows with the kids. We rented "The Greatest Amercian Hero" a few weeks ago. The show was popular when I was in 2nd grade. I remember a time during school when we had an assignment to write about a dream we had. Everyone was quietly working, when a boy in the class raised his hand and asked, "How do you spell 'greatest'?" Upon hearing that, the whole class began giggling and laughing, just knowing that his dream had something to do with the TV character. Sure enough, when we read our stories out loud, his involved The Greatest American Hero. Later, I was wondering just how in the world the whole class (including me) knew that his dream was about the TV show and not the 'greatest' something else. I tried to think of a sentence using the word 'greatest' in it. But as hard as I tried, I could not come up with anything that did not have 'American Hero' directly after it.